Oilfield service companies employ sophisticated equipment to develop wells. The equipment often takes the form of one or more downhole tool systems attached to tubular strings in the borehole. During a completion operation, for example, a borehole may have a casing string, a completion string, and a service string. The casing string is typically cemented in place to protect the borehole and to prevent fluids from seeping along the exterior of the casing. The completion string is placed inside the casing string to serve as a flow path for fluids from the formation, and may include packers to seal off the annulus around the completion string, valves to regulate fluid flow, and sensors to monitor downhole conditions. The service string is temporarily placed inside the completion string to position tools and materials for operations such as operating completion tools (e.g., setting packers, opening valves), perforating the casing, acidizing the formation, and/or fracturing the formation.
The tool systems for downhole completion and servicing have grown more complex as companies demand higher efficiencies in oilfield operations. For example, companies want to maximize the number of operations performed on each string's trip into a borehole. This maximization requires multiple tools to be integrated into a complex system. Moreover, the higher efficiency requirements often mean that only a short time is available for tool system design and assembly. It would be desirable to provide a system and method for downhole tool system development that would prevent these complexity and time constraint issues from harming service quality.